Let this be a warning to all those who argue that public employee pensions should be slashed: the public is NOT on your side.

Over the past several months, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John and Laura Arnold Foundation have spearheaded efforts to make public employee retirements less secure.

However, a funny little thing happened as the duo tried to gain more support for their pension message --- the data collected for a recent survey actually supported why public employees deserve the pensions they rightfully earned.

When Pew discussed the findings at a recent meeting in Washington, it found that teachers, police officers and fire fighters had high favorability ratings (ranking in the low 90s).

Other findings from the survey found that 55 percent of polled respondents believed pension benefits are currently the “right amount or too small.”

Another talking point that elected officials and pension crusaders have argued is public employee pension plans are too exorbitant and are hurting municipalities’ financial bottom lines. This talking point is wildly exaggerated. Those who were surveyed say there is hardly a crisis going on. About 50 percent of those who responded to the survey said public pensions face minor problems or no problems, while just 33 percent believe anti-pension activists who say public pensions are facing major problems.

When we posted the findings of the report on the IAFF’s Facebook page our fans had plenty to say on the issue.

It is amazing that people like this look at our pensions and benefits and call us parasites when these politicians pensions and benefits are 3-4-5-6 times what fire fighters, police officers and teachers could ever hope for.

They need to look at the pensions in Congress!

It's funny I do not see anyone (Republican or Democrat) in Washington willing to give up their pensions and life time medical coverage!

It's well earned - let's protect these guy’s pensions with the same diligence they protect & serve us!

We’ve said it before that the real crisis is not the state of public pension funds, but the number of people who will retire with little to no financial security because pensions are so scarce these days – making people more economically secure is what we should be trying to fix.